[Siz.]

Thanks everyone

Thanks, I've been using foobar for DSD files, mainly turning ISOs into FLACs

Never thought it would have an edge over VLC for PCM playback, we learn something new every day eh

Downloaded musicbee, couldn't even find how to navigate to a particular folder with the files, so that's not for me

Also try JRIver. Not free, but they offer a free trial period. The interface / useability is much better than Foobar IMO, and it also plays nicely with iTunes if that is a factor for you.

Whatever you use, you want it to play the track at its native sample rate / bit depth - you shouldn't have to change the settings for different albums: set and forget Luckily this is easily checked with the MScaler of course, by a quick test with a variety of recordings and checking that the correct colour is showing.

 

[Ragnar-BY]

one of mine has been signed off for production, and production has started

Great news! However, I am slightly worried that this news was announced on April 1st

 

[Vyyy]

I don't know what specific products John was thinking of, but one of mine has been signed off for production, and production has started.

I just cannot decide should i move from Hugo2 to TT2 (2GO2YU already preordered as for streamer). O there might be something interested in same area to spend money or competition is at another sound level Please help or clarify @Rob Watts In some expression manner we are allowed to receive at this point )

 

[HeeBroG]

OK I have put something together. These are calculated numbers, not measured, and represent max OP at 1% THD:

Hi Rob,

Can you create a similar chart for DAVE please?

G

 

[Rob Watts]

For Dave the values from 300 to 33 ohms are 100% accurate. 16 should be OK, 8 is from measurements:

No April fools posts today!

 

[feddar]

...The BNC cables have ferrites (which should go up to 2Ghz).

What kind of ferrites are you using? The only ones I can find on Digikey max out at 500 MHz.

https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/filter/cable-ferrites/840?s=N4IgTCBcDaIGIFMBOSCWAXBIC6BfIA

 

[thePhones]

What kind of ferrites are you using? The only ones I can find on Digikey max out at 500 MHz.

https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/filter/cable-ferrites/840?s=N4IgTCBcDaIGIFMBOSCWAXBIC6BfIA

https://www.mouser.de/ProductDetail/710-74270093
https://www.mouser.de/ProductDetail/710-74270061
The Datasheets only show graphs up to 1 Ghz, so it was a bit of gues work, but they look promising.
And on my 2m cable, 15 of the smaller ones and 5 of the bigger ones per cable did the job. But others might work ok too. This website has a nice feature that lets you search by datasheet.
It‘s the German link but the website is and ships internationaly

 

[genefruit]

https://www.mouser.de/ProductDetail/710-74270093
https://www.mouser.de/ProductDetail/710-74270061
The Datasheets only show graphs up to 1 Ghz, so it was a bit of gues work, but they look promising.
And on my 2m cable, 15 of the smaller ones and 5 of the bigger ones per cable did the job. But others might work ok too. This website has a nice feature that lets you search by datasheet.
It‘s the German link but the website is and ships internationaly

these are the ones I use and they go to 2Ghz - https://palomar-engineers.com/ferri...-Range-200-2000-MHz-Bulk-Pack-of-10-p90491417

 

[feddar]

Thanks guys. The 3 (between the two of you) have quite a difference in Inner Diameter ( 6.35mm to 13.1mm). How did you end up choosing those sizes?

Also, do the snap ons work as well as the slip on. I suppose the slip-on type requires cutting and re applying the end connector, which may be challenging.

 

[Rob Watts]

Oddly my experience with Hugo M scaler is that clip on ferrites actually sound worse. You need the solid core ferrites. My suspicion is that the resonance due to the air gap is spoiling the behaviour of the 2GHz chip ferrites that are installed on the BNC drivers within the HMS. The change with clip on ferrites is a brighter sound with poorer depth - that's consistent with an increase in RF currents rather than a reduction. My only guess on this is that some kind of sympathetic resonance is occurring.

If you have ever spent time SPICE modelling ringing (I spent a huge amount of time on this in the past when designing very high speed switching OP stages) you can get very strange effects with tiny amounts of parasitic inductances and capacitances, and sometimes these effects are counter intuitive, or don't seem to make sense!

 

[Triode User]

@Rob Watts and @feddar An alternative theory was put to me by some RF engineers and they had found in some circumstances the slot created between the two halves of the clip on ferrites can act as a lens and in effect fire the RF energy back into the cable. There were guys who had spent a whole life working with RF. They also pointed out that the spacing of the ferrites affects the slope of the frequency/impedance cut off.

From my own experiments I found that putting the same ferrites on different cables (same diameter) can have a markedly different effect so it is not just as easy as looking at a ferrite data sheet and assuming something will work, best is to try various cables and ferrite combinations. I abandoned several combinations that really should have worked according to the data sheets but in practice they were sub optimal and were dispatched to the great trash can in the sky.

 

[mammal]

I am trying to learn and educate myself here. Can someone help me understand why do we need these ferrites between HMS and HTT2/Dave? Why aren't they required for all other cables (like headphone cables) as well? Wouldn't RF noise affect them too? Thanks!

 

[Triode User]

I am trying to learn and educate myself here. Can someone help me understand why do we need these ferrites between HMS and HTT2/Dave? Why aren't they required for all other cables (like headphone cables) as well? Wouldn't RF noise affect them too? Thanks!

All dac analogue stages to a greater or lesser extent will produce intermodulation distortion if RF noise is present. This is easily heard as a hardness or harshness to the sound and is fatiguing. It also affects the bass and mids. The distortion is only heard when music is playing. With no music playing you cannot hear it. Also the distortion is often mistaken for ‘life’ in the music or ‘extra soundstage’ or extra ‘detail’ etc. One prime route (but there are others) for the RF noise to get into the dac is by piggy backing on the digital input. Using ferrites targeted at the RF noise frequency can reduce the RF noise to the point where it is not a problem whilst still letting through the digital music carrying signal unharmed and unaltered.

The RF noise is all around us in our homes (wi-fi, routers, dect phones etc) but can also be produced by some HiFi equipment which have chips operating at high frequencies.

With the dual bnc cables it is common mode noise and that is why ferrites are an effective way of reducing the RF noise.

However it is not just dual bnc cables which are prone to the RF noise and single spdif bnc/rca digital cables also benefit from the ferrite treatment. Likewise the bnc clock cables used by dCS and others are prime candidates for the same treatment.

Generally it is not a good idea to use ferrites on analogue cables such as headphones, interconnects or speaker cables because they invariably affect the analogue signal (and not in a good way).

I hope that helps.

 

[118900]

these are the ones I use and they go to 2Ghz - https://palomar-engineers.com/ferri...-Range-200-2000-MHz-Bulk-Pack-of-10-p90491417

How many are you using per cable?

 

[thePhones]

They also pointed out that the spacing of the ferrites affects the slope of the frequency/impedance cut off.

That's also what I noticed and the change was very noticeable. At first I had them all pretty close together and it just sounded a little bit better than the stock cable. After I spaced them out evenly over the 2m it was a lot better, meaning it went from 40% to 98% battery performance compared to the stock cable with stock powersupply. I wonder how much of an impact the diameter and therefore distance to the cable actually have, as it seems that the bigger ferrites had more of an impact than the smaller tight sitting ones.